tv - Set Decorators Society of America

Transcription

Set Decorators Society of America
HUFF
Spring 2006
Medium
Commander in Chief
$10
www.setdecor.com
12
8
55848 00026
8
Ghost Whisperer
What About Brian
and a look at New York films
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contents
Spring 2006
Photos by David Wasco
David Lee © Universal Studios
SETDECOR
28
34
Awards
14
16
18
20
78th Academy Awards®
Oscars® Green Room
SDSA Lifetime Achievement Award
ADG Awards
Film decor: New York films
Photo by Ken Haber
28
62
INSIDE MAN
34
FREEDOMLAND
THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE
Mazur
14
©
SPRING 2006
Alex Mazur
Dressing & undressing, decorating the biopic
8 SET DECOR
Sandy Reynolds Wasco
Gritty New York/New Jersey noir, in color
40
40
George DeTitta Jr
An inside look at Spike Lee’s taut thriller
A.M.P.A.S.®
HUFF
Spring 2006
Medium
Commander in Chief
Ghost Whisperer
What About Brian
and a look at New York films
Cover: HUFF
Set Decorator Michele Poulik SDSA – 1st Season
Set Decorator Richard C Walker SDSA – 2nd Season
Production Designer Joe Lucky
Showtime
Photo by Hedley Jones
© Film Works Media
contents
SETDECOR
Spring 2006
24
Photo by Chikako Suzuki
66
46
Television decor
46
WHAT ABOUT BRIAN
Susan Benjamin
Photo by Ken Haber
LA art makes the scene
54
MEDIUM
Diane O’Connell
Channeling sets for the hit series
62
GHOST WHISPERER
Mary E Gullickson
A spirited look at upscale Americana
66
COMMANDER IN CHIEF
Carol Bayne Kelly
Commanding sets of the presidential environs
74
HUFF
Michele Poulik & Richard C Walker
...and stuff...
Two different seasons of this quirky dramedy
54
In every issue
74
10 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
22
TV sources
WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU
24
Out Shopping
African Artifacts
87
SDSA Events
Day with Set Decorators
SDSA Awards Luncheon
SDSA Silent Art Auction
94
Resources
Jill Sprayregen Henkel
contributors
SETDECOR
Tom Castañeda is an award-winning broadcast journalist, having spent
eight years working in television news throughout the United States. Currently, he is
Spring 2006
Issue 12
Merchandising Manager for a leading design-oriented magazine. Over the last four years,
Publisher
Castañeda has worked closely with the SDSA and written often for SET DECOR. He is
Patrick Graham
an entertainment enthusiast who loves both film and television.
Lisa Dare is a freelance photographer, but her original training was as an
academic, with a specialty in film history. The Phi Beta Kappa scholar did research in
a number of arenas from the Venice Film Festival to the Film Arts Foundation in San
Francisco. Her studies of classic films have helped shape her photographic eye. An
SDSA business member since 1998, she has photographed innumerable film and
television sets and is a frequent contributor to SET DECOR.
Louise del Araujo, Lead extraordinaire, sums up her work as, “I
bring the rabbit and the hat!” Appreciation of the set decorator’s magic, and the nuts
and bolts required to make it happen is only part of del Araujo’s rich perspective. Her
multiple degrees, various incarnations this lifetime and penchant for research give her a
well-layered POV, which she shares with our readers.
Ken Haber ’s background in art and photography played an important role
in his 25-year career as a location manager with such directors as Adrian Lyne, Oliver
Stone and Ridley Scott. Currently he works as a photographer, shooting television and
film sets for magazines and portfolios. His photo essays have appeared as set dressing in various film and television projects. In addition to his photography, he serves
as manager of the LA branch of the Maryland Film Office. Married to Set Decorator
Editor
Karen Burg
Executive Editors
Rosemary Brandenburg & Jan Pascale
Managing Editor
Sam Molineaux
Art Director
Ileana Hernandez
Associate Editors
Joanne Baker
Susan Ory Powers
Advertising Director
Schel Kuehnert
schel.kuehnert@setdecor.com
Account Executive
Stephanie Counts
stephanie.counts@setdecor.com
Photographers
Ron Baker EDD, Dan Bishop, Lisa Dare, Abbott Genser,
Daryn-Reid Goodall, Ken Haber, Hedley Jones, David Lee,
Frank Masi SMPSP, Tim Petros, Mark Rodriguez, Peter Stone,
Chikako Suzuki, David Wasco
Rosemary Brandenburg SDSA, Haber is an SDSA business member and frequent
contributor to SET DECOR.
Hedley Jones got his start in photography shooting for a newspaper in his
native Jamaica some 25 years ago. Self-taught, he relocated to California in 2001 and
specializes in photographing interiors. His work brought him to the attention of the design
team for Showtime’s HUFF. His set photography for the popular show is his first foray into
entertainment photography, and his on-set photographs appear in SET DECOR for the
first time this issue. Jones uses Nikon’s new D2X digital camera.
Erik Nelder
got his first burst of photographic genius as a 10th grader,
illustrating a literary project with images from a mental institution in his native Huntington,
New York. He later went on to study experimental/non-narrative film at SUNY Binghamton,
Photographs courtesy of
ABC, Art Director’s Guild, Architectural Digest, CBS, Gyroscope
Interactive Photography, Oscar ©AMPAS® image courtesy of
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Paramount
Network Television, Picturehouse, Revolution Studios,
Set Decorators Society of America, Universal Pictures
SET DECOR
www.setdecor.com
Editorial:
SET DECOR
1646 North Cherokee Avenue
Hollywood CA 90028
323-462-3082
karen.burg@setdecor.com
and television, radio and film production at Syracuse University. Nelder worked as a
location scout and manager in the film industry before moving on to a full-time career as
a photographer. He lives in Los Angeles, with his wife Nicole.
Tim Petros has been a professional commercial photographer since 1979.
Advertising & Marketing:
Film Works Media
6500 Hatillo Avenue
Woodland Hills CA 91367
818-888-5946
Recognizing QuickTime VR as an evolutionary step in commercial photography, Petros
Distribution:
formed Gyroscope Interactive Photography in the mid ’90s. Based in Los Angeles, he
Daniel Graham
Film Works Media
6500 Hatillo Avenue
Woodland Hills CA 91367
818-888-5946
fax: 818-884-1812
subscriptions@setdecor.com
focuses on VR work for the entertainment industry, with clients such as Warner Bros.,
Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Discovery Channel, Spelling TV, Disney Online and Fox
Interactive.
Chance Rearden’s career began on VIETNAM WAR STORIES over 20
years ago. After months of dawn to dusk days, a hideous daily commute and more sand
Subscriptions: $24/year
Cover Price: $10/issue
bags than he cares to remember, Rearden realized that none of those negatives mattered.
The utter sense of satisfaction in bringing scripts to life was his true calling. He has since
production designed for film and television, set decorated and art directed hundreds of
commercials, and is currently enjoying decorating for private clients as well.
Kate Sheeley puts a spin on bicoastal, if the banks of the Mississippi
River and 10,000 lakes count as a coast! She maintains residences in both Los Angeles
and Minneapolis, working on film and television productions in the Great Plains area
and Hollywood. Having grown up in a television and theatre environment, the fields of
graphic design and set decoration were a perfect fit. Sheeley enjoys being part of the
storytelling process, whether it is visual or written.
12 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR is published quarterly by Film Works Media under license
from the Set Decorators Society of America. All editorial content is the
express responsibility of the SDSA. Printed by Creel Printing.
from the editors
Spring. New television shows are sprouting. Established ones are getting a fresh
airing. Films are in the constant state of birth and rebirth, as new ones begin from
a seed of an idea and sequels continue to arise.
In this issue, we celebrate the successful rapport of set decorators epitomized by
Michele Poulik SDSA and Richard C Walker SDSA, who decorated the first and
second seasons, respectively, of the hit television series HUFF. It is
delightful to find professionals possessed of the flexibility to gracefully inherit a
show from another decorator, or pass one on, all the while remaining
supportive of the other and appreciative of what each brings to the screen. The
happy results of such synergy can be clearly sensed in the set photos and
interview of Poulik and Walker. Mentorship and support go far in creating an
atmosphere of comfort where survival in the fast-paced world of television and
film design is challenging.
Set decorators at their best are expert at absorbing direction from many quarters,
yet the final product is an original: the sensibility of each decorator shines through.
The Oscars® this year were a bittersweet event for us, with the joy of our esteemed
nominees tempered with passing of the winner, Gretchen Rau (MEMOIRS OF A
GEISHA), less than a month after receiving the award. So many of our community
have come forward since her death, crediting her mentorship and passion for the
art of set decorating as deeply inspirational in their own careers.
On these pages, you will discover a garden of shows in various stages of growth,
from the nascent WHAT ABOUT BRIAN to the blossoming
COMMANDER IN CHIEF. The popular psychic dramas MEDIUM and GHOST
WHISPERER are featured, as well as the quirky HUFF. You will also find a look at
current New York films.
We hope that good shows and good films continue to flourish, and look forward
to continuing to bringing you “inside” the set decor.
Enjoy!
Jan Pascale
Rosemary Brandenburg
Executive Editors
Karen Burg
Editor
14 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
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awards
THE
78th
ACADEMY AWARDS
®
®
Congratulations to the Academy Award Nominees
for Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction
GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK. (Warner Independent Pictures)
Art Direction: Jim Bissell
Set Decoration: Jan Pascale SDSA
HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE (Warner Bros.)
Art Direction: Stuart Craig
Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
KING KONG (Universal)
Art Direction: Grant Major
Set Decoration: Dan Hennah and Simon Bright
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA* (Sony Pictures)
Art Direction: John Myhre
Set Decoration: Gretchen Rau
PRIDE & PREJUDICE (Focus Features)
Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood
Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
*Awarded the Oscar® for Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction on March 5, 2006.
©
16 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
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awards
Green Room at the Oscars
®
O
nce again, SDSA business members
ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST and Sandy Rose
Floral Inc partnered with the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Production Designer
Roy Christopher and his set decorator, wife Dorothy
Christopher, to create the celebrity green room for the
Oscar® telecast.
Christopher, who has developed the look for 15 Academy
Award® telecasts, explained, “This year’s green room
evokes the glamour of an intimate yet luxe lobby of a
fantasy theater, serving as a small homage to S Charles
Lee, the leading designer of motion picture theaters of
the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s.”
The 740-square-foot room featured luxurious Deco
settees, Art Moderne chairs, crystal accessories, white
florals and more than 100 yards of fabric draping the
walls and entryway. On display in light-box marquees,
10 posters of the nominated best feature films and
best foreign films were recreated in black and white to
suggest classic Hollywood. A five-panel Art Deco
mirrored screen reflected this world of black and white,
complimented with rich golds.
18 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
awards
SDSA
Lifetime Achievement Award
Set Decorator Lee Poll SDSA was presented the SDSA Lifetime
Achievement Award at the annual Set Decorators Society of
America Awards Luncheon on March 19th, held at the Skirball
Cultural Center, Los Angeles. Sponsored by SDSA business
member EC Props in memory of its founder Earl Cooperman,
the award is the cornerstone of an annual awards program
recognizing outstanding set decorators and their work. This is
the third time the award has been bestowed.
Photo by Ken Haber
Previous honorees were:
SDSA President Emeritus Robert Zilliox SDSA and former
Governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Marvin March SDSA.
20 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
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awards
ADG
AWARD
WINNERS
Excellence in Production Design for a Feature Film
Period or Fantasy Film
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA (Sony Pictures)
Production Designer: John Myhre
Excellence in Production Design for a Feature Film
Contemporary Film
WALK THE LINE (Twentieth Century Fox)
Production Designer: David J. Bomba
Excellence in Production Design in Television
Single Camera Television Series
ROME – Episode 1 (HBO)
Production Designer: Joseph Bennett
Multiple Camera Television Series
MAD TV – Episode 1106 (Fox)
Production Designer: John Sabato
Television, Movie or Mini-Series
EMPIRE FALLS (HBO)
Production Designer: Stuart Wurtzel
Excellence in Production Design
Congratulations to the
Art Directors Guild Award
winners for Excellence in
Production Design.
Awards Show, Special or Documentary
77TH ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS (ABC)
Production Designer: Roy Christopher
Excellence in Production Design for a
Commercial, Promo or PSA
BUD LIGHT – Headless Horseman
Production Designer: Jeremy Reed
Honorary awards were presented to:
Production Designer John Mansbridge for
Lifetime Achievement, to Steven Spielberg for
Outstanding Contribution to Cinematic Imagery and to
Ronald V. Strang for Career Achievement for
Scenic Arts.
During the ceremony, the ADG inducted five
additional Production Designers into its
Hall of Fame:
John Box, Hans Dreier, Cedric Gibbons, Jan Scott
and Alexandre Trauner.
22 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
television sources
TV stage sets are not just seen on the TV screen anymore!
Coming soon on starstyle.com, you’ll be able to meet
Set Decorator Jill Sprayregen Henkel SDSA and take a 360°
personal virtual tour of the sets of the popular television
series WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU. Henkel took over the longrunning show in its second season, inheriting a few of the
elements, just as the characters Val and Holly did when
moving into the signature set, The Loft. Over the years,
Henkel has continued the blend of the old and the new,
incorporating them into a fun, eclectic space. Below, with
a unique shot of The Loft captured by photographer Tim
Petros, Henkel shares sources for some of the pieces that
helped her achieve the show’s hip look. Begin at the front
door and follow the dots in a clockwise tour of the set.
WHAT
i
like
ABOUT
YOU
14
19
11
10
15
17
8
13
16
9
Tim Petros, Gyroscope Interactive Photography © MMVI
7
5
18
12
6
24 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
1. Rodeo artwork by David Vanesky
David Vanesky Studio, Los Angeles
2. Cabinet
10. Floor lamp
19. Artwork
IKEA
Public Theater, New York City
11. Curtain
IKEA
20. Drapes
Pottery Barn
3. Red table and chairs
12. Antique Medicine Cabinet
Warner Bros. Property
4. Stools
13. Table
By Design catalogue
22. Desks and chairs
Blueprint, Los Angeles
5. Sofa Slip Cover
14. Taxi photograph by Ralph Fowler
Warner Bros. Upholstery
Hollywood Studio Gallery
6. Cart
Pottery Barn
7. Chairs and side tables
24. Artwork & bulletin board
16. Green lamp
Hollywood Studio Gallery
Blueprint, Los Angeles
8. Future artwork by David Vanesky
David Vanesky Studio, Los Angeles
9. Rattan chairs
25. Magazine rack
17. Floor lamp
IKEA
Pottery Barn
18. Sofa and cushions
IKEA (darker tops: custom)
23. File Cabinet
15. Green and pink lamps
IKEA
IKEA
21. Hanging lights
26. Carpet
Linoleum City
21
1
20
23
24
25
2
22
3
26
4
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR 25
out shopping
3
2
1
AFRICAN artifacts
Shopped and styled by Chance Rearden SDSA. Photographed at OB•JECTS by Ken Haber.
Set Decorator Chance Rearden SDSA, with many years’ experience on
commercials, ventured into territory unknown to him with this assignment
for SET DECOR: African Artifacts. Rearden researched first the resources,
then the items of interest. He stresses the importance of learning about
these powerful cultural artifacts in order to use them appropriately. Please
refer to Resources, page 94, for details about each piece.
4
1 Masai Water Jug; Pende Ceremonial Mask:
GALLERY ASHA 2 Bamileke Female Mask:
HOUSE OF PROPS 3 Bwa/Mossi Mask:
OB•JECTS 4 Standing Figure Mask: HPR
(HAND PROP ROOM) 5 Ukhamba Zulu Beer Pot;
Gauteng Tablecloth: CULTURES 6 Mende Statue
& Helmet Mask; Korogho Mud Cloth: TRIBAL
TREASURES
6
5
26 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
film
A
s a New Yorker and a set decorator, this was one
opportunity that I found irresistible. For me, someone
who’s been kicking around this town for over 25 years,
the chance to work with one of New York’s most famous
directors and collaborate with the talented production
designer Wynn Thomas was a welcome challenge.
Although most interaction was through Wynn, I felt we provided
Director Spike Lee with great looking sets to tell his story. After all, this
is what filmmaking is all about: a collaborative effort by all parties to
give the director the right tools by which he can convey his vision to
an audience. I think Spike was happy with the end result.
NYC bank heist with twists
INSIDE MAN is a good old-fashioned bank heist story with a few new
twists. While the number of story settings is quite limited, the scope and
detail of the actual sets were not. Presented with some large locations,
we had to determine how to marry them to stage sets for our more
complicated scenes.
Working in downtown Manhattan has always been a challenge;
navigating its narrow one-way streets and heavy pedestrian traffic does
not make for ideal location filming. Add to that the post 9/11 world of
closed streets, barricaded areas and close proximity to Ground Zero and
you would think that this was chaos on the brink of disaster. Remarkably,
it wasn’t.
Classic New York
30 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
V
First up, was a wonderfully old classic Art Deco building, built in the late
1920s. This would be our bank’s main floor, the scene of the crime. A great
old building, it had large windows that gave a sense of being downtown.
A majestic skyscraper for its time, this place had great bones and still had
the original marble and teller areas. The space’s last incarnation was as a
cigar bar. We had to turn it back into an elegant old-style bank. We stripped
the space of anything visually impairing, including large exhaust systems
mounted everywhere, and proceeded to transform a grand old space
into one that would have decor to rival its architecture. Once the scenics
worked their magic with some wonderful murals, we got to work. The set
dressers proceeded to replace carpet, draperies and lighting fixtures. New
furniture and artwork, bank graphics, tellers’ accessories and banking
forms completed the task.
Our location set established, we turned our sights to the lower floor
of the Bank which we built at New York’s newest stages: Steiner Studios,
located in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. We completed a full floor that almost
mirrored our first floor in space and was designed to be connected by a
staircase revealing an exit on the location set. It was here that we created
the real workings of the Bank, where the film had major scenes, from vaults
to safe deposit box areas. We also devised a variety of smaller rooms in
the Bank’s Basement based on our research of an actual bank that we
scouted.
Christopher Plummer as bank president
Arthur Case. Dark, like the past he is hiding,
Case’s Office says power, connections and old
money. Details tell his story.
Set Decorator George DeTitta Jr SDSA
Production Designer Wynn Thomas
Universal Studios
INSIDEMAN
Set Decorator George DeTitta Jr SDSA gives an insider view of INSIDE MAN
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR 31
film
Jodie Foster as the ambiguous, sleek “fixer”
Madeline White. Sparse, modern and worldly,
White’s Office reveals something about her and
then again, nothing.
film
Armed with in-person research, the design team was able to
recreate a Manhattan bank vault with absolute accuracy.
Scouting the money trail
An interesting research field trip brought us to a bank that
actually was in the business of physically “moving money” out
of the country to various financial institutions of the world. What
an education! It was here that we saw how the Federal Reserve
packages money, how large the bricks of one hundred dollar bills
are, even how heavy they are. We were each instructed to “hold
out your hands” and into them was placed a $1.5 million brick of
hundred dollar bills. There was that fleeting thought, “Now, where
to escape with that 30 pounds of Franklins?” But one only had to
look up at the security cameras mounted every three feet for the
answer to that question.
The tour of the precious metals area was even more
unbelievable. Here was what looked like a prop room with old
metal shelves housing gold and silver belonging to some of the
world’s wealthiest people. It seemed more like a film than reality.
34 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
With the research under our belts, the job of making our lower
floor resemble our actual location progressed. Here, besides
the vaults and money-keeping areas, we created a more
working-class environment, with a cafeteria, small offices,
janitorial rooms and a storage room where our story departs from
the usual bank heist flicks.
Mobile command and the police world
An elaborate onstage re-creation of a police mobile command center was based on our location model. Quite slick and
copied almost exactly, it was electronic eye-candy. I worked with
suppliers of the actual vehicle and modified our design based on
the art department changes. This set eliminated the need for the
film crew to work in cramped quarters and enabled better lighting
and camera mobility. It also provided a more sane approach to
the problems of computer programming the different screens and
“An interesting research field
trip brought us to a bank that
actually was in the business of
physically moving money out of
the country to various financial
institutions of the world. What
an education! It was here that
we saw how the Federal Reserve
packages money, how large the
bricks of one hundred dollar bills
are, even how heavy they are.”
– George DeTitta Jr SDSA
having access to all this equipment. The video technicians had
their hands full with this setting and the stage was the only place
to pull it off logistically.
We also created some of our police department settings
on stage. Later, they were combined with locations, such as
an interrogation room along with an outer area that was then
married to our Police Precinct Station, a New York Department of
Transportation office that we transformed.
Revealing character
Numerous other location settings were dressed
but none as ambitious as the office of Jodie Foster’s
character. A raw penthouse space in an old New York building
overlooking Gracie Mansion, this was perhaps the most
challenging. It was a great space, but raw, and we had the task of
transforming it in about three weeks into the world of
Madeline White. Sparse, modern and worldly, this was a set
that revealed something about her and then again, nothing.
When we did the Bank President’s Office, everything on
the desktop (trophies, plaques, photos with famous people)
told his story. This executive [Christopher Plummer] lived in a
different world. His office says power, connections, old money.
It is also dark, like the past he is hiding. We created that set
in the old US Customs House at the tip of Manhattan. The
architecture demanded furniture as grand as the incredible
carving and amazing detail in the room. The transformation
took a few days but we achieved what we set out to do.
This was all made possible working with a great design team
of Production Designer Wynn Thomas and Art Director Chris
Shriver, my assistants Chrissy Mayer and Dan DeTitta and a
great set dressing team headed by Chris DeTitta.
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR 35
film
Set Decorator Alexandra [Sandy] Reynolds Wasco SDSA
Production Designer David Wasco
Sony Pictures
The suspense thriller FREEDOMLAND is a highly charged and gritty
mystery of a carjacking, a missing child and a neighborhood torn asunder.
Sandy Reynolds Wasco SDSA gives not only an inside look, but also
insight into the creation of the sets of this New Jersey film noir.
36 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
Photos by Frank Masi SMPSP © 2006 Revolution Studios, LLC All Rights Reserved
Detective Lorenzo Council [Samuel L Jackson] and missing-children searcher
Karen Collucci [Edie Falco] lead Brenda Martin [Julianne Moore] through
the desolate, creepy ruins of Freedomland, an abandoned orphanage. Jackson
describes Freedomland as “A pretty brutal place in its day. It’s abandoned now
and legend has it that when you’re in there you can hear the kids crying.”
Frank Masi SMPSP © 2006 Revolution Studios, LLC All Rights Reserved
film
Production Designer David Wasco and Set Decorator Sandy Reynolds Wasco SDSA, who created the
film-noir-in-color look of COLLATERAL, KILL BILL Volumes 1 & 2 and PULP FICTION have achieved that gritty
realism again with the film FREEDOMLAND. Without the stylized contemporary elements found in the former
films, these accurate, unsentimental and yet somehow compelling sets let the surreal come from the real.
Sandy Wasco writes about how vital the connection to individual people was to the experience and to the
creation of the sets.
REEDOMLAND was written by Richard Price, a master
at describing inner city life [SHAFT, COLOR OF MONEY,
RANSOM, CLOCKERS], with characters so strong that
they stick in one’s mind and heart for years after a first
encounter. They are complicated, as layered and ambiguous as
densely peeling images on a worn city billboard. This is what
drew us to the project and what makes the film unique.
David and I approached the material as if it were a
documentary, designing everything to be as simple as possible.
We didn’t want to get in the way of Samuel L Jackson’s Detective
Lorenzo Council or Julianne Moore’s Brenda Martin and their
connection with the audience. We wanted to give them the
support of a background but not interfere with the heartbreak of
their portrayals.
Briefly, the story involves the frantic search for Brenda’s
child, whom she has reported inadvertently kidnapped when
F
38 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
her car is stolen. She and her police officer brother are from the
city of Gannon, New Jersey. Irish, Italian, Polish working-class
Gannon sits just across an overgrown park from the Armstrong
Housing Project in the neighboring community of Dempsy.
The park becomes a battleground as racial tensions and
misunderstandings escalate.
Real-Life Foundations
Fortunately for us, many of the characters and places in
the script were based on actual locations we were able to see
and people we were able to meet. Our housing project, police
stations, hospitals, schools, prison, even the park came alive
with information supplied by men and women Price knew and
introduced us to.
This was one of the greatest perks of working on
An overgrown park becomes a battleground as racial
tensions and misunderstandings escalate between the
residents of Dempsy, a predominantly African-American
working-class poor inner-city community, and Gannon, a
neighboring, largely white blue-collar suburb.
that big life-loving sense of humor that comes from good people
doing crazy-difficult jobs.
Set Decorating on Location
We filmed in Yonkers, New York for our New Jersey
townships. Our challenge was to make the mostly state and
federally funded environments of the story seem correct for our
fictitious communities, and to layer them with convincing detail.
For example, faced with filling three floors of an emptied
hospital, I was not optimistic about completing it on time and
on budget. Luckily, I discovered American Resource Medical,
the most up-to-date medical rental facility I’ve found east of the
Los Angeles River! Owner Mark Sofferman supplied me with
everything from syringes to state-of-the-art and camera ready
vital-sign monitors for nine triage stations, five ICU bedrooms,
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR 39
V
FREEDOMLAND, meeting people deeply invested in their
communities and honestly trying to make a difference.
First and foremost was the man Price based Sam Jackson’s
character on, Detective Calvin E Hart of the Jersey City Homicide
Division. On his few hours off each day, Hart is a motivational
speaker and a drug-awareness lecturer, and somehow is also
studying for a teaching degree. The double-sided card he hands
out at his anti-drug talks reads “See Me Now” on one side,
“Or I’ll See You Later” on the other. We also spent time with
Donna Cotugno, the founder of “Friends of Jennifer.” Donna was
the model for Edie Falco’s character Karen Collucci, who leads
a similar national search organization helping to locate Brenda’s
lost son.
These two and many others were as generous with us as they
were with their own; showing us the ropes, giving us an in-depth
understanding of their particular worlds, and always doing so with
film
A derelict hospital was used for
the Emergency Room set, which
meant Wasco had to bring in
everything from beds, screens
and equipment to charts and
paperwork.
40 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
Photos by David Wasco
a 13-bay exam room, a lobby and various corridors. I truly mean
everything: gurneys and rubber gloves, crash carts and computer
programs, ECGs, EKGs and respirators... all of this, plus technical
training for the set dressers and a medical technician on call.
We have great medical resources in the Hollywood area, but
it was a relief and a delight to find a medical source on the East
coast. Our resources make a world of difference and I wish we could
acknowledge every one of them!
“One of the greatest perks of
working on FREEDOMLAND
was meeting people deeply
invested in their communities
and honestly trying to
make a difference.”
– Sandy Reynolds Wasco SDSA
film
Set Decorator Alexandra [Alex] Mazur SDSA
Production Designer Gideon Ponte
HBO Films
THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE attempts to capture in black
and white the life and career of pin-up icon Bettie Page. Briefly
touching on her childhood with an abusive father in 1930s
Nashville and the failure of her first marriage, the film hones in on
the beginning of her unusual modeling career in New York City.
Her business and personal relationships with publishers Irving and
Paula Klaw and photographer Bunny Yeager are at the heart of the
story. The Kefauver indecency hearings in the late 1950s provide
the climax. The closing shots are of a sidewalk in 1960s Chicago,
where we see Bettie passing out religious literature.
Channeling Bettie Page
The real Bettie Page, who is now in her eighties, tries to keep
her life private and has given few interviews. She has been quoted
as saying that she prefers to be remembered as she was in her
prime. When Alexandra Mazur SDSA decorated the film, she
was not able to meet with Page to gain background information.
Instead, Mazur and Production Designer Gideon Ponte had to
rely on the memories of people who had known Page and on the
printed research available.
Abbott Genser, ©2005 Picturehouse
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF BETTIE PAGE
By Louise del Araujo SDSA/AM
The wholesomeness that Bettie Page
projected when modeling for pin-up and
nudie stills made her a 1950s sex icon. At that
time, the country was under the strict moral
guidelines of the Motion Picture Production
Code established in 1930, which banned
on-screen nudity and prohibited the use of
publicity photos displaying cleavage on women.
Newspapers around the country following the
Code’s guidelines went so far as to remove
bellybuttons from advertising photos of female
models wearing two piece swimsuits. This
was still in effect in 1951 when, after failing
to make it as an actress, Bettie Page turned to
modeling for pin-up photos.
Eventually Page was introduced to
Irving Klaw and his sister Paula by one of
the photographers for whom she had posed.
The Klaws sold movie star pictures through
their publications, MOVIE STAR NEWS
and MOVIE PARADE. As they moved into
the world of “naughty pictures” (nude and
semi-nude women, sultry women in bondage
poses, women with whips and chains), Bettie
Page became their top performer. These
photos were generally sold discreetly under
the counter. Page also appeared in the sexy
short films that the Klaws began to produce.
According to the Klaws, what set Page apart
from the other “girls” who posed for them was
the “wholesomeness and freshness” that she
transmitted.
During a trip to Florida, Page met Bunny
Yeager, a former glamour model turned
photographer. Yeager envisioned a different
look for Page and, together, the two women
created some of the most famous of the Bettie
Page photos. Yeager shot Page in lingerie and
bikinis, both in and out of the water. The photos
emphasized the innocent, yet sexy girl-nextdoor look that she was able to project so well.
The photos were a hit and helped make Page
one of the top pin-up models of the 1950s.
The January 1955 centerfold of the newly
established PLAYBOY magazine featured
Bettie Page’s famous “Santa Claus” photo,
shot by Bunny Yeager. That same year,
Senator Estes Kefauver formed a committee
to investigate obscene materials and those who
supply them. The committee managed to put
Irving Klaw out of business and thousands
of the most famous bondage photos of Bettie
Page were destroyed.
This was the beginning of the end of Page’s
career. The “girlie” photo business was in
disarray and her attempts to break into acting
failed to materialize into real jobs. Page left the
erotic photo/film industry and turned to religion.
Considering the type of photos that Bettie posed for, it seems
paradoxical that she did not smoke or drink, and was not a party
girl. “Bettie was really a very simple person who happened to like
being naked.” Mazur emphasizes, “She believed that was how
she was meant to be. She never felt that she did anything wrong.
I think that one of the results of the hearings was her realization
of how others viewed her photos.”
This information gleaned about the personality and
philosophy of a character is often revealed in the sets. “We
learned that Bettie loved to sew and had made all of her own
costumes,” Mazur continues. “For the Bettie’s Apartment set, we
had slipcovers and curtains sewn to look hand-made. We tried
to incorporate a sense of innocence and aspiring glamour in her
home and yet keep it simple.”
On location
The film was shot on location in New York, New Jersey
and Florida. Mazur points out, “All the locations, except one
coffee shop and a bar, were total re-dresses. We had a limited
budget so as far as set dressing was concerned, we were not
That would have been the end of the story
were it not for Dave Stevens. In 1979 the
young Stevens saw a picture of Bettie Page
in FROLIC, a popular men’s magazine. The
picture so mesmerized him that for the next
several years he began collecting “Bettie
photos.” Her influence was so strong on him
that in 1982, while writing his famed comic
book THE ROCKETEER, he introduced a
Bettie-Page-lookalike girlfriend for his main
character Cliff Secord. And a new Bettie Page
phenomenon took off. There are websites even
now devoted to Bettie Page, with an array of
collectable memorabilia that attest to the Bettie
Page craze.
always able to get exactly what we wanted. Luckily, a few New
York prophouses were able to supply some of the items and
keep within our budget. Eclectic/Encore, State Supply and City
Knickerbocker were my main sources for rentals. Second Hand
Rose had all the wallpaper we needed for the photo backdrops
and for the interiors. I did a lot of shopping in upstate New York
and I hit the New Jersey auctions, thrift stores and antique stores.
The production company rented a van for me, so on weekends
I’d cover the Hudson Valley and further north, shopping until my
van was full. Since the movie prep took place February through
April, there weren’t too many people at the local auctions, so I
was able to get some good deals.”
She points out, “Shooting black and white gave us leeway
in some areas, but we had to really focus on tone, texture and
pattern.” This was Mazur’s first time with the Ponte design team
but it was a good mesh. “I really enjoyed it. Gideon Ponte is
very hands-on and extremely innovative. Art Director Thomas
Ambrose did a wonderful job with all the locations that we
had. Working with them and Director Mary Harran was a great
experience.”
– Louise del Araujo SDSA/AM
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR 43
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Photo by Ken Haber
tv
Set Decorator Susan Benjamin SDSA
Production Designer Jeremy Cassells
ABC
48 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
whatabout
brian
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR 49
Photo by Ken Haber
tv
50 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
Set Decorator Susan Benjamin SDSA wowed the TV viewing world
with the hip, New York edgy-but-fun sets she and Production Designer
Kelly Van Patter SDSA did for THE APPRENTICE and THE APPRENTICE 2.
Now Benjamin and Production Designer Jeremy Cassells, working in Los
Angeles, has just completed sets for WHAT ABOUT BRIAN that incorporate several aspects of LA art scene.
SET DECOR spoke to Benjamin about the sets for this new show that’s
receiving great buzz before it even airs.
SET DECOR: What was unique about working on this
project?
Susan Benjamin SDSA: Finally having a project that was set in
Los Angeles and shooting in Los Angeles! We got to create sets
that were authentically Los Angeles in the present time, 2006,
including: a house in Venice [an artistic, bohemian beach
suburb of Los Angeles], a house in the Hollywood Hills, a Spanish
duplex in the mid-Wilshire area and a computer game business.
characters in our show. Lots of my research comes from
studying real homes and noticing how people live. You can’t get
that from magazines.
SB: In television you don’t see much on the screen but I don’t
let that deter me. I think establishing a believable environment
helps the actors as well as the director and crew. The
production designer, Jeremy Cassells, built great sets based on
actual locations. We did a lot of research of the structure of the
original houses but then adapted the furnishings to fit the
Zap Monkey, Dave and Brian’s game design office, was
probably the most fun to do. We researched a lot of computer
game offices and read a lot of industry newsletters, magazines,
and internet sites. Billy Shire Fine Arts was instrumental in
helping us get the artwork for this set. Gary Baseman and Tim
Biskup were very generous and supplied us with a lot of images
RIGHT
Photo by Ken Haber
OVERLEAF & LEFT Adam's Living Room.
Adam, Brian's best friend since high school, is
a successful young lawyer. The design team
decided that he would have hired a decorator,
thus the upscale, highly designed
look of these sets.
Adam’s Bedroom is a stark contrast to the
Dave and Deena’s Bedroom seen
on the following page.
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR 51
V
SD: You have done a wonderful job decorating the sets.
They look like actual real-life locations, not sound-stage
sets. How did you develop such a realistic look?
I live in Venice and have many friends with children, so Dave
and Deena’s House was not hard to imagine. It just took a lot of
time to furnish because we had to keep adding layer after layer.
The writers of the show provided an extensive back story for
each character. The house in our Venice apparently belonged to
Deena’s grandmother so we furnished it with the family history.
However, we decided that Adam, the young lawyer living in the
Hollywood Hills, probably would have hired a decorator to
furnish his place. So we did a designer look there.
Photos by Ken Haber
tv
52 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
“Dave and Deena's House was
not hard to imagine. It just took
a lot of time to furnish because
we had to keep adding layer
after layer...the Venice House
apparently belonged to Deena's
grandmother, so we furnished it
with the family history.”
Photos by Ken Haber
Susan Benjamin SDSA
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR 53
tv
as well as toys. I don’t think you could have an authentic
looking Los Angeles tech-game office without their images
pervading the scene.
SD: LA art seems to be featured throughout the sets.
SB: Jeremy and I have a very similar sensibility and easy dialog
when it comes to choosing artwork that tells a story. We had a
lot of fun choosing the pieces of art for the sets. We used pop
art from painters who are very popular in the LA scene, but
whose work you don’t normally see on primetime TV.
Here’s a great example of what we went through to get the
right look. We saw a piece of artwork that we liked in a book
showcasing the work of Glenn Barr. He graciously granted us
permission to use the work and sent us a slide of it so we could
reproduce the painting by enlarging it on canvas from a
photograph. We wanted to create a 4 foot high by 5 foot wide
canvas to put near the poker table in Adam’s designer-y home
but the slide wasn’t large enough to do this. Annie at Billie
Shire Fine Arts located the original painting in San Francisco.
Fortunately for us, it belonged to the owner of another gallery.
So we hired the gallery’s photographer to go to the owner’s
home and photograph the painting using a large format camera.
He not only photographed the picture, but had it mounted and
framed, and then drove it down to LA so we could have it on
the set in time! That whole process happened in five days. The
things we do for the right piece! [Editor's note: See photo page 8]
SD: What is your perspective on current decorating for
television?
Television shows are becoming much more elaborate because
the competition with the cable channels is so high. We are not
doing three wall sets any more. We are filming more and more
on location and the style today is realism. I think there is a
higher expectation now to create “real” looking sets. The
producers and directors want bigger sets BUT the shooting
schedules are still eight days for a one hour TV show! The
demands are greater, so the amount of crew needed to
produce these results is greater. I had two buyers on this show
and an average of six set dressers every day. I think this is
going to become the norm if these schedules continue.
Certainly, working in televsion is unpredictable.
Carol Bayne Kelly [SDSA] did the original pilot for WHAT ABOUT
BRIAN, but because one of the main actors was replaced,
we ended up reshooting 80% of it, with many changes. The
networks are under such pressure to perform that working full
seasons is no longer guaranteed. We filmed six episodes and
are waiting for ratings to determine how many more will be
produced. We do the best work we can. With a little bit of luck,
we’ll get a good time slot, a compelling marketing campaign
and people will watch the show!
54 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
Photo by Ken Haber
SB: We may not have as much prep time as feature films or
as much money as commercials to build the sets but I think
the standard of set decoration has become higher. And I think
working under such pressured schedules in television for all
these years has enabled me to make decorating decisions more
quickly.
Photo by Ken Haber
Zap Monkey: Dave and Brian's Los Angeles tech-game design office.
Benjamin based much of the imagery on actual toys and designs
by game gurus Gary Baseman and Tim Biskup.
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR 55
tv
MEDIUM
Set Decorator Diane O'Connell SDSA
Production Designer Jessica Kender
NBC
Set Decorator Diane O’Connell SDSA seems to be channeling the
sets for MEDIUM. Television episodics require a tightrope dance
between reality and fiction, especially when based on a real person.
Natali Pope SDSA, the set decorator for the pilot reveals, “I am thrilled
that Diane has carried on our vision for the show and expanded it.
It’s wonderful to see pieces that we felt would be significant become
iconic. She has continued to bring character to the sets and created
her own sets that flow perfectly with the original vision.”
Set Decor spoke with O’Connell about the sets for this hit series.
SET DECOR. The Dubois Home looks real, as if real people
live there. It’s hard to believe that it is actually onstage.
Diane O’Connell SDSA: That’s the clutter. The creator of the
show, Glenn Caron, likes clutter. Three kids and two working
parents live here. Instead of straightening the house, we clutter
it! On most sets, items don’t move around. Our thought
process is that the characters would have picked things up
one place and left them somewhere else. When I come on set
after a shoot, there will be something on the table that wasn’t
there when we dressed it, or something leaning against the
wall, and often I’ll just leave it there. Thank goodness continuity
hasn’t been an issue for us!
SD: What are some of your obstacles?
56 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
V
DO’C: Our show’s big challenge is the prep time. We rarely
have any! We do not prep a show on a first-draft script. We
wait for rewrites and prep as they come to us. We do not have
production meetings. We get the pages, prep the sets and
shoot the next day or perhaps the day after. With locations, I
normally go on a scout with the production designer (I don’t
wait for the tech scout!), so I can start prepping immediately.
Photos by Paramount Network Television
LEFT Detail
from Living Room pillow cover textile.
Living Room. The chenille print chair and ottoman are
signature pieces carried over from the pilot.
Set Decorator Diane O’Connell SDSA brought in the cabinet
as part of a plot point scripted in the series storyline.
ABOVE
RIGHT Dining Room. One of O’Connell's and
Production Designer Jessica Kender’s favorite new sets
continues the Southwestern theme. The table and chairs were
special finds, as were the side table and each of the accessories.
The sheers match the ones pilot
Set Decorator Natali Pope SDSA had originally
placed in the living room.
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR 57
tv
Another challenge is dealing with “bloody” murder scenes. I use
a lot of area rugs with plastic adhered to the bottom – shrinkwrap works great! For furniture, I slipcover and try to use leather
or nougahyde pieces underneath. I cover the mattresses, box
springs and pillows with plastic covers you can find at Bed,
Bath and Beyond.
We also have to contend with reflective surfaces. We have to
have sheers and curtains everywhere, but the sheers can’t have
too much of a sheen. There’s not a piece of glass anywhere.
I even have to be careful with lamp bases. Nothing shiny. And
our lighting on stage is all from stage, nothing from above.
SD: It sounds as if you’re shooting for High Definition TV.
DO’C: Yes. We just got a Hi-Def TV at home and I do notice
that bold colors jump out at you. So we have to use a wash or
muted colors, otherwise it overpowers. And art directors have
to be really careful. If they use Lujan paneling, it really shows.
I don't feel HDTV works well for episodic TV or sitcoms. It
works great for travelogues, reality shows, sports and the news.
I wish our show was not in HD. To me, it takes the “movie” out
of it and makes it a reality show, which it shouldn’t be. It needs
to be a story.
Imagine going to the movie theater and watching SYRIANA in
HD. It would be like watching a newscast, not a movie. With a
movie, you go into the story, like when you’re reading a good
book. HD takes you away from the story they’re trying to tell
and makes you focus on the objects. It’s fine for documentaries,
fine for sports, fine for a travelogue, but in a movie, or an
episodic, you want the focus to be on the story.
SD: That’s a good point. So how do you contend with some
of the obstacles, both those associated with HD and other
areas?
DO’C: Because we have mini-blinds in the Girls’ Room and they
can moire on HD, we put sheers over them. I’ve learned how to
deal with the restrictions of HDTV by trial and error. Even though
woven blinds are so popular, I don’t use them because of the
moire effect.
We have an incredible art department, which allows us to create
90% of our graphics in-house. They do posters, signage, everything right here. This is essential because of our short prep; we
are able to have a fast turnaround and avoid clearance issues.
“I try to use rugs, objects and crafts
to give texture and dimension to
walls for the camera, and because of
clearance issues for art.”
– Diane O’Connell SDSA
58 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
Photos by Paramount Network Television
THIS PAGE
LEFT
We go on location for most everything. We hardly ever build, so
the art department spends its time and money on
graphics. It makes all the difference. Look, this world is inundated with signage. And that’s what makes the sets look real.
And it’s everyone – the production designer, the art director, the
scenic designer, the art department coordinator – we all work
together to design and create the graphics.
Dubois Family Kitchen
Dubois Objects d’Arte
perfect piece there. Of course, then I had to talk the
producers into paying the price! I love that piece. I don’t know
where I would be as a decorator without luck!
SD: What happens when you are unable to find the “right”
one?
DO’C: One example would be the cabinet in the living room.
It was written into the script, “a bottle of vodka in a cabinet
behind a glass beveled door.” (Allison drinks to quiet the voices
in her head.) And it was to be shot the next day! So I had to
find something right away. There’s a fabulous antique store in
El Segundo, Studio Antiques, and thankfully I was able to find a
And I could not duplicate the living room’s chair and ottoman.
Of course the producers loved that chair and ottoman. And it’s
a Universal piece. [Editor’s note: It was available only as a rental
from Universal Studios’ property department, which would
make it too expensive for a long-running show.] I made a deal
with Universal and bought them two chairs to “replace” the
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR 59
V
SD: And that right thing might be?
DO’C: Greg Melton designed and Natali Pope decorated the
pilot. I have so much respect for their work. And for the first
season, I had to duplicate everything I could – certainly the
major pieces. [Editor’s note: For pilots, most of the furnishings
are rentals, since a pilot is considered a one-time shoot. If the
pilot is picked up, the series set decorator has to find a way of
making the main sets permanent.]
I also have to give my shopper Adrianna Lopez much credit. We
worked together with Peg Cummings on PRINCESS DIARIES 2
and found we’re so much alike. We just don’t give up. We keep
looking, keep going and going until we find just the right thing.
tv
chair and ottoman so that we could use them for as long as the
show goes. I did the same with an armoire at Warner Bros. That
way the prophouses have something to rent out all the time
we’re using their pieces.
I had the Dubois sofa made at Warner Bros. Drapery, a
fabulous resource. Victor Hernandez, the head upholsterer, had
the frame made, we brought in the fabric and he slipcovered it.
Everything always comes out better there than you thought it
would! I rely on Warner Bros. In one day I can bring in a chair
and have it re-upholstered and it looks totally different and
fabulous – and on the set the next day! They are Old World
Masters. For another of our MEDIUM sets, I did a little sketch
right there showing how I wanted the drapes to hang, gave WB
the fabric and when I went back to check on it, the drapes were
finished and perfect! I can’t say enough about Al Martucci and
his crew in the WB paint shop. Any furniture that I’ve needed
painted, including aging and ornamentation, they’ve amazed me
every time.
I try to use rugs, objects and crafts to give texture and
dimension to walls for the camera, and because of clearance
issues for art.
Photo by Ken Haber
Unfortunately, now even neon has become problematic with
clearances. We do a lot of bar sets, so we had some neon
lighting made. We switched out a palm tree for a cactus that
said “Lite”. But that wasn’t enough. “Lite” is trademarked! So
we had to change it to “Light”.
Dr Caldwell's Office, DA
Bullpen, Courtroom
BELOW
RIGHT
Police Department Offices
60 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
Sometimes you already have “the right piece” and
circumstances complicate the picture. Now we have another
situation where we have a really neat neon that we’ve used
before. In fact, we’ve used it quite often. It has wings and says
“Brewski”. It was from one of those local boutique breweries,
this one was in Culver City, that went out of business. And now
we’re having trouble with clearance on it. So we’re having a
neon made and it may just say “Brew”. You know, eventually,
we’re just going to see a neon glow!
Though the show has its challenges, we find ways to make it
fun. Everyone in the art department gets along and has a great
time. I hope the show goes forever. And I want to always have
someone like Jessica to work with. She is so respectful and
collaborative. The way it should be.
Photo by Ken Haber
“We have an incredible art department, which allows us to create 90%
of our graphics in-house. They do posters, signage, paperwork, logos,
everything right here... It makes all the difference. Look, this world is
inundated with signage. And that’s what makes the sets look real.”
– Diane O’Connell SDSA
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR 61
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8687 Melrose Avenue, B532
Los Angeles, California
301.358.0404
Photo by Ken Haber
tv
64 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
GHOST
WHISPERER
Set Decorator Mary E Gullickson Jr SDSA
Production Designer Roy Forge Smith
CBS
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR 65
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J
ennifer Love Hewitt’s character on GHOST
WHISPERER may have an innate ability to
communicate with the dead, but the television
series’ set design and decor speak to the living.
They breathe new life into an old Hollywood back lot
and capture the essence of small town America.
“Our goal was to create a comforting environment that
felt like good old Americana, but tweaked slightly,” says
Set Decorator Mary E Gullickson SDSA. “We wanted the
town to be more upscale, and feel more like a middle-toupper-class community.”
The Town Square
Gullickson and Production Designer Roy Forge Smith
loosely based the fictitious town of Grandview on Nyack,
New York, the hometown of the show’s creator and
executive producer John Gray. “We did some research on
Nyack, took some basic elements from our findings and ran
with it,” explains Gullickson. “It was such hard work and
we only had two weeks to do it! I had to decorate Hewitt’s
character Melinda’s house, the antique store she owns
and the town square, which is a full working set. Between
episodes, I would race to add more layers to the sets.”
It took Smith and Gullickson more than new signage
and a fresh coat of paint to create the distinctive look of
GHOST WHISPERER. Since the show is taped on the same
part of the Universal backlot used in the film BACK TO THE
FUTURE, “Roy made major changes to the façades of the
buildings to make the setting more unique,” says Gullickson.
“I then added personal touches to what I thought would be
a great little eclectic collection of shops in a small, rather
chic town.” Each of the producers had a store named for
them, including the JVP Pharmacy for creator James Van
Pragh.
Gullickson worked her magic to create a town with a
twist. She added upscale storefronts, like the Tickle Me Pink
Beauty Salon and Mariah & Mishenka Fine Chocolatiers—
the high-end shop named after Gullickson’s niece and
dog. “The front windows are lined with raspberry velvet.
Chocolates were created out of dark and light brown tissue
papers, with little flowers glued on top, and then placed
into candy slips,” says Gullickson. “I knew I couldn’t use
anything that couldn’t withstand heat and sunlight, so the
tissue paper was a great solution to creating little chocolates
on gold and silver trays.”
OVERLEAF A Victorian tub filled with glass baubles
serves as the signature piece for the main set, the
antiques store Same As It Never Was.
Same As It Never Was, interior and
exterior. Set Decorator Mary E Gullickson SDSA
ensures that the antiques store lives up to its name
by presenting a mix of antiques and contemporary
items, bringing fresh life to the old and integrating
the new.
Photos by Ken Haber
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66 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
“I
Photo by Ken Haber
wanted to create fun
displays that catch your eye
and make the place look a
little different than the
traditional antique store,”
notes Gullickson.
Same As It Never Was
Despite the elaborate detail that went into engineering the
sweets store, Gullickson is most proud of the creative work that
went into one of the show’s principal sets, the antiques shop
owned and operated by Hewitt’s character. Gullickson aimed to
create an antiques store that represents the youthfulness and
down-to-earth nature of Hewitt’s character. The end result: a
shop that combines the old, the new and the organic.
“A lot of antiques stores can be very intimidating for some
people,” Gullickson points out. “I wanted to make this one very
warm and inviting, with elements that might cause someone
to say, ‘Oh, this is great! I’ve never seen anything like that!’ My
backstory for the shop is that Melinda has redone a lot of the
pieces herself. By changing the handles and doing a slicker
paint treatment, she’s made older pieces a little more contemporary. If you look closely, you’ll see all those elements in there.”
Gullickson’s favorite piece: the antique bathtub filled with
clear, purple, red and orange ball ornaments, giving the
appearance of a bubble bath. It has become the signature piece
in the shop and serves as an example of Gullickson’s creative
spirit. “Everybody who sees it gushes. They just love it!” says
Gullickson. “And that’s what I wanted to create throughout the
sets—fun displays that catch your eye and make the place look
a little different than the traditional antiques store. I really wanted
to make it youthful, but still feel antique.”
For the second season Gullickson says, “I want to keep up
the unusual ambience around Melinda. I don’t want it to get
stale.” For that reason, Gullickson continues to search out items
that whisper to her creative core as she strives to give viewers
an atypical look at small-town America.
– Tom Castañeda
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR 67
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68 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
Set Decorator Carol Bayne Kelley SDSA
Production Designer Eloise Stammerjohn
ABC
Peter “Hopper” Stone ©2005 ABC, Inc.
C
ommander
in
hief
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR 69
Air Force One, with Geena Davis as President Mackenzie Allen.
Set Decorator Carol Kelley SDSA describes, “Air Force One was 125 feet, shipped in
pieces, and had to be ready in eight days. We were assured that it was only going
to be shot once, so we packed it all up when that episode wrapped. Later, we found
they were going to shoot it again, so we repeated the entire process!”
T
he Oval Office and its environs have received
their share of attention in recent and current television shows, such as WEST WING
and 24. Now ABC’s COMMANDER IN CHIEF
displays the White House with a new take. The
primary resident is the first female US president Mackenzie
Allen [Geena Davis]. The plot involves a sudden assumption
of office, so the new president’s personalization of the inner
spaces evolves with the series.
The White House
Since the real White House is a much-photographed and
documented entity, Set Decorator Carol Bayne Kelley SDSA
and Production Designer Eloise Stammerjohn needed to be
sensitive to major historical and architectural elements. “We used
whitehouse.gov virtual tours and the White House Historical
Society extensively for research,” says Kelley. However, they
had the luxury of the decor being variable since each president
has options during his/her tenure. Certain styles of traditional
furnishings were kept, but the design team used its own taste
70 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
in color palette and decor. The result is a clean, rich look of red,
blue, white and golds, with paler shadings incorporated.
Every episode shoots two to five locations and usually two
new sets, both new builds and former swing sets repainted and
redressed. Says Stammerjohn, “We basically make a mini-feature
every eight days.” Time is an extreme challenge, particularly in
making it all come together in the grand scale required. Kelley
points out, “When the permanent sets were being established,
they covered almost all of Raleigh Studios’ Stages 11 and 12, a
large expanse of real estate.”
The show uses a good deal of walk and talks, says
Stammerjohn. “I made the hallways wide enough for two people
to walk side by side with a steadicam operator. All of our set
walls are at least 12 feet tall. In the upstairs hallways, the walls
are 14 feet high to protect us for sight-lines with tall actors and to
alleviate the need for many ceiling pieces.”
Sets in the proximity of the one listed on that day’s call
sheet have to always be camera-ready because of the use of
surrounding spaces. Even though they may be shooting the
Oval Office, all the halls and adjacent rooms are likely to be
Photos by Peter “Hopper” Stone ©2005 ABC, Inc.
tv
“We used whitehouse.gov
virtual tours and the
White House Historical
Society extensively
for research.
– Carol Bayne Kelley SDSA
seen at least partially. Shot on film and broadcast in HD [High
Definition], the show requires as many as three cameras and
there is always a steadicam operator.
Personalities revealed through sets
V
Having designed the pilot as well, Stammerjohn knows the score
better than anyone. “The original mandate was a show that was
light, bright and elegant,” she says. “Rod Lurie (creator) had
a vision of it being something that would inspire conversation,
something that people would remember. I worked very closely
with the creator to determine the personality of each character, to
give them a lifestyle. I also try, when possible, to give the actor a
little bit of input when doing private offices. Templeton’s Office is
dark and moody, although patriotic, much as Donald Sutherland
portrays the fictitious Speaker of the House. In the President’s
Private Study, we have archery awards, books and antique bows
to show her interest in archery. [Editor’s note: This is a personal
touch added for actress/producer Davis, an archery champion.]
The smallest details make all the difference.”
Kelley and Stammerjohn agree their favorite sets are the
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR 71
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central hallway of the Residence upstairs and the grand staircase
leading into it. The multiple crystal chandeliers are a large part of
the space, along with crystal sconces. The Oriental rugs were
an expensive investment on a television budget, but have been
shown often enough to warrant the cost.
Contingencies
V
Working with a limited budget is difficult enough but there
are always the last-minute changes to deal with as well. “At one
point, we understood we had a week to finish the Family Room
and Kitchen sets,” Kelley remembers. “Unfortunately, Geena came
down with laryngitis and literally couldn’t speak, so we needed
to change the shooting schedule. Instead of a week, we had to
have these rooms finished the next day! It was a big scramble,
but we made it work. We used some similar substitutes that were
quick and easily available while the permanent pieces were being
manufactured. We managed to create the same feel as originally
designed.”
“Another contingency,” continues Kelley “is that the White
House is a showplace. Everything must be clean and in good
condition and ready at all times. I give my crew great credit for
staying on top of this with our White House along with all the other
scheduling factors we face!”
One of the largest obstacles to
overcome was keeping the integrity of the East Coast
feel with the architecture and environment; being true
to the White House while reflecting the personality of
the current President.
Photos by Chikako Suzuki
BELOW AND RIGHT
72 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
“Our favorite sets are the central hallway of the Residence upstairs
and the grand staircase leading into it. The multiple crystal
chandeliers are a large part of the space, along with crystal
sconces.
– Kelley and Stammerjohn
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR 73
Photo by Peter “Hopper” Stone ©2005 ABC, Inc.
Photo by Mark Rodriguez
tv
Vision and fruition
“Overall,” Kelley says, “Eloise has the vision and we put
it together. She’s done so many projects that included White
House sets that she is a walking book of knowledge! And she’s
developed some great contacts.” Kelley describes the design team
relationship, “The collaboration between set decorator and
production designer is one of trust of instinct. Sometimes, we have
a good, intuitive feeling on something, and sometimes we fill it in
for the moment and refine it later. But we put our hearts and souls
into this and it’s all come together really well.”
– Kate Sheeley SDSA
Templeton's Office is dark and moody,
although patriotic, much as the character is
portrayed.
ABOVE
Detail from the Oval Office. Certain styles
of traditional furnishings were kept, but the
design team used its own taste in color palette
and decor.
LEFT
74 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
(OUSEOF0ROPS
RENTSEXQUISITEANTIQUESAND
OBJECTSOFARTTODESIGNERS
ANDDECORATORSWORLDWIDE
(OUSEOF0ROPSTREASURES
EXCEEDTHEIMAGINATION
(OUSEOF0ROPS)NC
.ORTH'OWER3TREETs(OLLYWOOD
MOTION PICTURE
SET INTERIORS
DRAPERY • UPHOLSTERY
11500 Burbank Blvd. N. Hollywood 91601
818 760-1817 • fax 818 760-1894
Bedding by Motion Picture Set Interiors
for Charlie’s Angels, Set Decorator: Lauri Gaffin
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Photo by Lisa Dare
Russell’s Office. The hard-edged, cutting-edge,
sexually naughty qualities of Lawyer Russell
Tupper are conveyed through the room’s decor
by Set Decorator Michele Poulik SDSA.
76 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
HUFF
Set Decorator Michele Poulik SDSA
Set Decorator Richard C Walker SDSA
Production Designer Joe Lucky
Showtime
In the vagaries of the television world, a set decorator can create the look of a pilot or series and because of
mitigating circumstances –– often, a change in schedule that conflicts with a commitment to
another project –– end up not doing the next season of the show. Some are content to establish the
initial look and move on to a new project, but for most, there is a conflict in mind and heart in having to
give over their “baby” to someone else. This is where respect for other decorators’ work and the friendships that have developed through networking come into play. Knowing that the person one refers has
similar sensibilities and ethos can alleviate much of the concern.
The quirky Showtime hit HUFF offered Michele Poulik SDSA the opportunity to do gorgeous, high-end
sets and visually establish many characters’ background stories in the first season, which aired last
year. Richard C Walker SDSA has stepped in for the current season, building on Poulik’s work and
creating new, fun sets of his own as the storyline continues.
SET DECOR sat down with Poulik and Walker to explore, through their work on HUFF, the generosity
and support set decorators give one another on a project.
SET DECOR: You seem to have kept the palette the same
throughout each of the main sets for HUFF – the Huffstodt
House, Huff’s Psychiatrist Offices, Russell’s Law Offices
– so it flows and the eye doesn’t stop.
Michele Poulik SDSA: Right. We also tried to keep it similar
to the pilot, color-wise. The pilot was done in Vancouver, so we
had to create totally new sets. Ours needed to feel like the ones
in the pilot, but we weren’t recreating them.
SD: Michele, you established the look in the first season
and Richard worked from your template and ran with the
storyline in the second season…
MP: That’s why this worked out so well, and Joe is great. I
really enjoyed our HUFF experience. We had a commitment to
the look of the show and we laughed often. It’s such a lovely
set-up they have there. Everybody on that production – props,
wardrobe, camera guys – are great. One of the most important
things is the people you work with: the producers, the actors,
all of the crew.
RW: It’s true. I did a pilot with the line producer, Lori-Etta Taub,
and most of the people from HUFF. So when I had to make the
decision about taking over for Michele on this, knowing that
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR 77
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MP: Exactly. Richard has a great sense of style. But I also
suggested that he take my place on HUFF because I knew he
would get along really well with the designer, Joe Lucky, and
that they would laugh a lot!
Richard C Walker SDSA: I had known about Joe for years and
always wanted to work with him. But if you have friends
working for someone you’d like to work with, which was often
the case with Joe, it just doesn’t seem right to try for the
position. You don’t want the possibility that you might take a job
away from a friend.
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Law Office Lobby. In the second season, the distinction between “wild
man and bad boy” Russell Tupper and the rest of the law firm becomes an
important part of the storyline, and needed to be established visually.
Set Decorator Richard C Walker SDSA developed a look based on curves
and circles, the opposite of the hard-edge squares and straight lines Poulik
used as the center point of her decor for Russell’s Office.
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they were all working at HUFF added a lot to the plus column.
Photo by Lisa Dare
SD: Speaking of pilots, Richard, you have worked on so
many sitcom pilots, episodic pilots, soap operas and sitcom series, but this is your first episodic series. When
you are so well established in the other areas, why go this
route?
RW: I don’t want to be pigeon-holed. Most set decorators feel
that way. That is our fear as decorators. That’s why I did film
as well, even soap operas! PASSIONS Production Designer
George Becket has always been there for me and the sets are
such fun to do.
SD: And Michele, you have done such a range of
television and film, the big question would be why would
you leave HUFF and “give” it to Richard?
MP: I hadn’t planned to leave, but the one trouble with cable is
that the hiatus is so long.
RW: You want to keep your crew… My crew is really
supportive and the goal is to keep that family together. You feel
responsible for them.
Izzy’s Apartment. Huff’s mother Izzy is accustomed to wealth
and order; to having things as she wishes, when she wishes.
Somehow this is immediately deduced from Poulik’s set.
TOP
Huff’s Office. The title character Dr. Craig ‘Huff’ Huffstodt is
a Beverly Hills psychiatrist who considers himself unassuming and
compassionate. Poulik gives the set an understated elegance, with
furnishings that have a sophisticated masculine quality, quietly
giving evidence of the character’s controlled power.
MP: Yes, exactly. You want to be able keep your crew
working. My crew is fantastic, my guys really back me up.
We did the pilot of THE COMEBACK and had a great time.
Production Designer Kitty Doris Bates is another favorite, and
the producer was John Melfi whom I worked with on FROM
THE EARTH TO THE MOON. So when we were on hiatus for
HUFF and the series schedule for THE COMEBACK looked
like it would plug in perfectly, I went for it. Who knew that there
would be delays that ended up keeping me from being able to
be back in time for the next season of HUFF?
SD: How did you deal with transitioning the switchover?
ABOVE
RW: Well, I already had an aspect of the history of the look
of HUFF. When Michele was first starting on it and I was on
another project, she and I went around shopping a couple
of Saturdays, just for fun. But we kept finding things for our
shows, and we kept going “Oh!” about the same things. I
remember we were at Macy’s Outlet and you bought that coffee
table for Izzy’s Apartment, Michele, and that big armoire. And
I loved those pieces. So now that I’m doing HUFF, it was like
“Ah! They really were perfect.”
Only, then it was suddenly not so perfect, because for
Izzy’s Apartment this season we had to have a glass table. They
wanted to drop all these flower petals on the table and shoot
up through it. And I thought “Oh no, I have to replace Michele’s
table that I love!” So now I had to find a glass-topped coffee table that made as much design sense. I had an image in
my head of this brass and glass table that I knew was an Old
Heritage piece, but I just couldn’t find it. I knew it would work
perfectly, which made it all the more frustrating. Then, remember Michele, when you sent me to Larchmont to look at that
little bar cart? I went in the store next door and they had my
brass coffee table! The exact piece that I had in my head, the
one that I had drawn on a napkin. It was amazing.
80 SET DECOR
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MP: That’s another great thing about giving a show to your
friend. He can call me up and say, “I’m looking for a bar cart for
the living room,” and I know exactly what he needs.
RW: And in this case, she had already been shopping all over
town for her new show, so she knew what had just come in and
where. But the previous show was still in her head. I know mine
stay with me. In fact, I called Susan Eschelbach today, who’s
doing HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, one of the sitcoms I did
with Production Designer and longtime friend Steve Olsen, and
I said “I’m thinking of you because I saw the sofa that’s perfect
for you…” And Michele’s calling me when she discovers something that jumps out as she’s shopping.
SD: What else have you added, and why? For instance,
in Izzy’s Apartment, you had to change the coffee table
because of a plot point and photography need.
RW: Well, Izzy has had a couple of extremely unusual and
difficult experiences. So she’s on a drinking spree and
depressed and falling apart, which means her little world that
was perfect… well, now I have to mess it up. We’ve added all
these plants that are dying and we’ve cluttered it. But she’s
going to get off the bottle and she’s going to get on an upswing
soon. So, I just get to continue the story and add the next layer.
And the same with Huff’s House.
BELOW Byrd’s Room. Huff’s son Byrd is not the typical teenage
boy. He seems to have an awareness beyond his years. Poulik’s
set offers a glimpse into Byrd’s world.
Kelly’s Apartment. Kelly Knippers is a television sales rep
whom high-powered lawyer Russell meets while shopping for a
flat screen. A wild night of partying and debauchery results in
a pregnancy that changes both their lives. Walker’s set conveys
just how much her world is the opposite of his.
BOTTOM
SD: The producers are telling you to suddenly change
the coffee table. Are people going to notice that it has
changed? Has that been written into the script as part of
the storyline, or is it something you’re supposed to slip in
and past the viewer?
RW: You slip it in there. I think the only people who really notice
are other decorators. You want to get something that’s true
to the character, so the change will hardly be noticed. In this
case it helps that the camera limits what you see, as do the
angles that are shot. We are, however, making a big deal out of
the Master Bedroom Suite changes because Beth is having a
breakdown. So they’re ripping out the bathroom and totally redoing it as part of the story. It’s turmoil in their lives reflected in
the set.
SD: Did most of the sets remain the same?
RW: I just added more clutter, because the characters are going
through change. More life stress. Michele was establishing who
these people are. And now that we’re learning more about
them, there are specifics things we’re trying to bring out.
SD: The visual clues?
RW: Yes.
MP: The clutter.
V
MP: The DP would say, “I want more clutter. More clutter!” But I
couldn’t make sense of it. I can’t do clutter just for clutter.
It has to work with the characters.
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR 81
RW: Yes! They wanted that from day one.
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Huff’s New Study. This set evolves on camera as part of the
second season storyline. Reflecting the upheaval in their
personal lives, the Huffstodts decide to remodel their
master suite. Huff’s newly completed study, an extension
off the bedroom, seems to announce a denouement of
hostilities, but may in fact become where he sleeps.
Walker’s set exudes comfort and sanctuary.
RW: Right, these people have a maid.
MP: Yes, they have a maid! And I’ve already made sure that
every surface is covered with variable heights for camera.
RW: It’s trying to find readable clutter, because you can put it
there, but it might not read on camera at all.
MP: It gives the camera depth, it gives the room depth.
RW: For sitcom, you focus on the sight line behind actors’
heads. You know that’s where you decorate, because that’s
where the camera is. For episodic, you have no idea of where
the sight line is, because you have no idea where the camera is
going to be!
MP: Especially since they shoot so much with Steadicam that
82 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
you don’t know where they’re going to see. So you have to
have every corner thoroughly done.
RW: For a sitcom, you’re able to be there for the camera
run-through, so you know exactly what corners the camera will
be seeing. And you can fix it, tweak it. That’s what I miss. On an
episodic, you get only a very limited idea on the tech scout, and
then they often change at the last second. You have to rely on
your on-set even more. I say to him, “I love this piece and that
piece, and this is my key element thing. Try to work those in.”
MP: On a tech scout (it’s the same whether you do film or
episodic) you, as a decorator, know that when the producers or
director or DP say, “We’re just going to shoot in this direction,” it’s
the kiss of death. It translates to they’re actually going to shoot
everywhere. So I always tell the DP when I turn in my budget,
“Okay, you say that you’re only going to shoot these sets in that
one direction, but unless you are actually willing to sign a piece of
paper that states it, I’m going to budget for the whole room!”
SD: When you speak of filling spaces, for the voluminous
Huffstodt House set, the PD designed beamed ceilings, an
impressive staircase and mezzanine-like landing...
RW: Yes, and Michele, did you come in and see the huge
empty sets and say “Oh my, what am I going to do?”
SD: Don’t you also have some significant changes?
RW: Yes. Teddy has moved out of his place and into Venice, so
we’re totally creating his new place and we’re also re-doing the
law firm. We left Russell’s Office as is, as Michele did it, but we
created a whole new set for the law firm with a new entrance,
lobby/reception, conference room and a bullpen area.
MP: Right, because he’s a bigger character than originally
planned.
RW: Yes, he’s a bigger character now, and he’s the bad-boy of
the firm. They keep him on because he brings in the big bucks,
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR 83
V
MP: I did take a deep breath! We particularly needed something
to cover the staircase wall, because when you walked into the
set that wall was a huge two-story blank space. So I hung a 6foot square wooden carving from Jaipur, India, and two 3-foot
square companion pieces. There are so many angles with the
stairs and beams that you can’t have anything busy.
RW: I hung a giant kilim on the other wall, on the opposite side.
But Michele’s was a brilliant solution, and unique. It was great to
inherit Michele’s look.
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but the rest of the firm is more conservative and we had to
reflect that in the sets.
MP: I wanted to do more rugs, but there were money restraints.
I was very happy, though, with the carpet I did for Russell’s
Office.
RW: Oh yes, that carpet is great! Russell’s character is a little
hard-edged and also very cutting-edge so the whole design is
based on hard lines and squares. The carpet is fabulous, as is
the chandelier Michele created. She made it out of Ikea bits, but
it looks brilliant on camera and you’d never know it’s Ikea!
MP: The production designer insisted on a huge chandelier
for Russell’s Office. He wouldn’t let up on it. And I only had so
much money for the entire set. I looked and looked, and I said
to myself, “I can’t do a chandelier. There is no way.” So I came
up with this one.
Have you ever worked in HD before?
MP: Contrast from light to dark is one of the big restrictions
with HD, and you can’t use the color red. Another huge factor
is that you need to fill every area of wall space, because the
camera picks up every detail. If there are bumps or unevenness
in the wallcovering or swirls in the paint strokes and plaster, the
camera picks them up and they detract from the shot.
RW: It’s interesting and an extra challenge. Steve Olsen and I
did one of the first sitcoms ever on High Definition, TITUS. We
learned right away that whites are harsh. The contrast is so
strong. If you put anything white in a dark set, it’s going to read
really, really bright. So instead of using a white lampshade, you
put in an almond shade. Same with linens and drapery.
MP: That’s why the stark white chandelier had to be toned
down. We made it slightly grey. Just enough that it doesn’t
glare, but still is bright.
RW: The grouping of the elements is really great.
SD: HUFF is shot in High Definition. How is it different?
SD: What about the one you have in the Law Office Lobby,
Richard?
RW: I lucked into finding that one. I loved it the moment I saw it.
Wendy Murray, our mutual buyer, spotted it. I had this whole circle and square thing. Since Michele’s for Russell’s is all squares,
this is circles. Everything in the lobby is based on all circles.
RW: The challenge is often, “Where am I going to find that?”
Like the script note says, “Teddy leaves his asylum/care facility
Teddy’s Venice Room. Huff’s
schizophrenic brother Teddy gets to
move out of an elegant, but tightly
controlled care facility into a halfway house in Venice, which gave
Walker and crew the chance to be
playful.
LEFT
Dauri’s Bedroom. Sharon
Stone loved watching the first
season of HUFF and asked for a
character to be written for her to
play as one of Russell’s lovers. Thus,
Walker’s version of a Sharon Stone
bedroom.
RIGHT
MP: The grouping is what was so hard, to get the spatiality of
it, to get it just right. My poor guys were up there for almost a
whole day! I’d come in and say “Um, that’s a little off. Raise this
one two inches and lower that one. And get rid of that one altogether, please.” We had a ton of them up there, but we ended
up with just those four. And then we had to “take them down,”
color-wise, because of the High Def.
and he and Huff are shopping around for other places.” So now
Huff goes to one, “not a hospital but a high-end extended care
facility.” The descriptive line in the script was “Oh, look at these
beautiful comfortable leather sofas and chairs.” And I’m
thinking, “Okay, multiple leather sofas and chairs that match…
oh no! Where am I going to find multiples that match on our
budget? And immediately!”
MP: A familiar problem!
RW: Yes. This time it’s high-end, yet it’s institutional. Then they
chose the location, a Women’s Club, gorgeous, old-school
Craftsman kind of building. And leather sofas and chairs that
are institutional just didn’t fit in my head for this place. I couldn’t
figure it out. So I used the chairs that were existing in situ and
found sectionals that worked with them. I did what made sense
to me. And the director walked in and said “This is great!” You
just have to do what’s in your gut, because if you really get to
know the character and the site, you’ll see the right direction for
the design.
SD: Did you ever have it happen on this show, or any show,
where you did what you felt was right, and they said “This
is awful, get it out of here?”
RW: Rarely. When it feels right for the character, I know it’s right
for the producers. Normally, I get a great response because I’ve
talked to them beforehand.
MP: I’m like Richard. It hasn’t happened to me either. I let
enough people know what I’m doing, and if they don’t like it,
they have the opportunity to tell me before I do it. That’s what
collaboration is about. And we always work so hard to please.
For instance, there was a pair of small sculptures in the pilot.
And I was told over and over, “‘They’ want them, they really
want those pieces.” I searched high and low. I called Vancouver
and I called the store where they were bought and I called the
maker… nothing! And then I went to Horizon for something else
and there were four pairs of those very sculptures! Naturally, I
bought them! When I proudly brought the pieces onto the set,
they said “We wanted them? Who said we wanted those?”
Welcome to our world. You just have to laugh.
SD: Which goes back to the beginning of our interview.
You and Richard have similar design sensibilities and
ethics, and you both believe in laughter. No wonder you
have such a successful working relationship and friendship.
Congratulations to both of you for your great work on HUFF.
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR 85
88 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
SDSA
Officers & Board Members
Set Decorators Society of America Events
OFFICERS
Tara Stephenson
President
Robinson Royce
Vice-President
Julieann Getman
Treasurer
Michele Harding-Hollie
Secretary
Day with Set Decorators
Day with Set Decorators, the unique SDSA event series that offers an inside look at
set decoration, once again drew a standing-room-only attendance when the event
was held February 28 at CBS Radford Studios. Walk-throughs of the sets of CSI:NY,
THAT ’70S SHOW and COURTING ALEX included Q&As with the set decorators of
each show, as well as discussions with set decorators serving as mentors during the
event. Tours of the studio prop and signage shops and backlot were included. The next
in the quarterly series is scheduled for May 20. Check the SDSA website for details:
www.setdecorators.org
EXECUTIVE BOARD
Joe Armetta*
Joanne Baker*
Ellen Brill
Mae Brunken
Gene Cane**
Donald Elmblad
Daryn-Reid Goodall*
Peter Gurski*
Jason Howard
Mark Johnson
Jerie Kelter
Corri Levelle**
Brenda Meyers-Ballard
Jan Pascale
Natali Pope
Laura Richarz*
Hilton Rosemarin
Dan Schultz**
Anne Shea
David Smith
Shirley Starks
Kate Sullivan
Beth Wooke
*Board Alternates
**Business Members
EAST COAST OFFICERS
Susan Kaufman
George DeTitta Jr
ADMINSTRATOR
Robert Mello
Photos by Ron Baker EDD
Tim Colohan
Chairman
ABOVE On the set of CSI: NY
RIGHT Camera aisle & sets from COURTING ALEX
Oscar Panel
®
The Art Directors Guild and the Set Decorators Society of America held an historic first
on the afternoon of March 4 (the day before the 78th Academy Awards® presentation): a
panel discussion for members of Hollywood’s American Cinematheque and the general
public with the five teams nominated in the Oustanding Art Direction Oscar® category. It
is expected that this will be an annual presentation.
The production designers and set decorators, moderated by ADG President Tom Walsh,
spoke in front of an audience of 500 guests at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theater, home of
the American Cinematheque.
Setting the Stage:
Set Decorators Explain it All
This ever-popular panel on set decoration took place March 29 during Westweek
at the Pacific Design Center in the Greystone Home Collection Showroom.
Sponsored by California Homes
Magazine and moderated by
the publication’s editor-in-chief,
Susan McFadden, the panel
focused on set decoration of both
film and television, specifically the
shows WILL & GRACE, THAT ’70s
SHOW and MADtv.
Top row: Daryn-Reid Goodall SDSA,
Cheryl Carasik, Greystone Home Collection
CEO Catherine Howard.
Bottom row: Tara Stephenson SDSA,
Melinda Ritz SDSA, California Homes
Magazine Editor-in-Chief Susan McFadden.
SPRING 2006
SET DECOR 89
Gorgeous art,
gorgeous weather,
gorgeous tablescapes,
gorgeous people...
SDSA Annual Awards Luncheon
Held on March 19 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Brentwood,
California, the luncheon featured the bestowment of the SDSA
Lifetime Achievement Award to Set Decorator Lee Poll [See
page 18] and the honorarium “Chairs” [See sidebar, right] to
outstanding members.
1
A salute to Oscar-winning set decoration and art direction
premiered at the event. The film montage was sponsored by
SDSA business member ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST, with Ellen
Harrington from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
serving as advisor and Paul Fagen directing the editing. Upon
receiving accolades for their extensive work on the film montage,
former SDSA President Daryn-Reid Goodall said he and former
SDSA Vice-President Mark Johnson, “...watched hundreds of
hours of movies and shed millions of tears to select the best
scenes we could find. The real thanks go to the set decorators
and the art directors who made the films that made this tribute
possible.”
2
The world of set decoration for television was represented
by an often overlooked segment of design and decor talent, the
set decorator for commercials. The requirements for 30-second
movies are like those of their 90-minute counterparts, except that
they have to be produced at a much higher speed! The work
of three top commercials set decorators, Sharon Bonney, Mary
Gray and Jean Simone, was screened in honor of this branch of
the profession.
3
Barry Pritchard, former firefighter, now president of Omega
Cinema Props, presented the Community Outreach Committee
Chair Mae Brunken and Set Decorator Hilton Rosemarin
acknowledgement and thanks from the Los Angeles Fire
Department for their huge donation to the Spark of Love Toy
Drive.
The exceedingly popular and highly successful Silent Art
Auction broke all records. [See page 90]
Corri Levelle of Sandy Rose Floral Inc oversaw a fascinating
array of tablescapes created by her staff and The Enchanted
Florist, Julie Komen Floral Design, Stems, and Flower Art Inc,
incorporating linens from BBJ Linen, Classic Party Rentals, and
LA Party Rents. Fantasy EyeLand Balloons provided sculptures
of colored latex and air, and Party Pals sponsored a photo booth.
All were standout hits.
4
90 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
5
“We must be willing to change chairs if
we want to grow. There is no permanent
compatibility between a chair and a person.
And there is no one right chair. What is right
at one stage may be restricting at another or
too soft. During the passage from one stage
to another, we will be between two chairs.
Wobbling no doubt, but developing.”
Author Gail Sheehy
7
6
8
9
The SDSA Chair award represents change, stability,
transition and a job well done. Chair awards are
presented annually in recognition of volunteer work
done in support of the organization.
The honorees receiving SDSA Chair awards in 2006
were:
10
Dominick Bruno, Warner Brothers, host of the 2004
MarketPlace.
Gene Cane, Props Services West/PSW, SDSA board
member, business member liaison, MarketPlace CoChair.
Willie Carter, RC Vintage & Alley Cats, a founding
business member, currently the SDSA’s landlord.
Beverly Hadley, Universal Studios, instrumental in
developing and hosting the first five MarketPlaces.
11
Photos by Erik Nelder
1 SDSA Lifetime Achievement Award 2006
2 Lee Poll, recipient of the 2006 SDSA
Lifetime Achievement Award, and family
3 Mark Johnson, retiring SDSA VicePresident, Chair Award recipient 4 Mae
Brunken, Chair of Community Outreach
Committee, sponsors of the Silent Art Auction
fundraiser 5 Awards Co-Chair Donald
Elmblad and Marvin March, recipient of the
2005 SDSA Lifetime Achievement Award
6 Leslie Frankenheimer and Ken Haber
7 SDSA President Tara Stephenson and
former President Daryn-Reid Goodall
8 Tammy McCann and Shari Shroder-Luh
9 Awards Co-Chair Shirley Starks 10 Gene
Cane, Chair Award recipient and Adrianna
Cruz 11 Pam Elyea and her mother Colleen
Michelle Harding-Hollie, SDSA board member,
Secretary, Events Chair, raffle prize guru.
Mark Johnson, SDSA board member, out-going Vice
President, Membership Committee Chair, founding
member of the Community Outreach Committee.
Corrie Levelle, Sandy Rose Floral Inc, SDSA board
member, business member liaison, humanitarian.
Dan Schultz, Lennie Marvin Enterprises, SDSA board
member, business member liaison, MarketPlace CoChair, website mentor.
David Smith, former SDSA President, SDSA board
member, East Coast liaison and out-going Treasurer.
outreach
Tim Colohan
Ron Olsen, ROKK STUDIOS
Dianna Freas
Tim Colohan
Daryn-Reid Goodall
SDSA
Silent
Art
Auction
92 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
The SDSA Silent Art Auction, which showcases the
artwork of individual set decorators and business members,
has become a hallmark of the annual awards event. The quality of the work and the range of media, subjects and styles
add to the excitement generated by the exhibition and sale.
This year broke all records, with 108 pieces bringing
in over $14,000. Oils, acrylics, watercolors, photographs,
sculptures and tapestry filled the mezzanine of the Skirball
Cultural Center and produced last-minute bidding wars.
Pillows created by set decorators as a nod to favorite films
and television shows for the “Pillow Walk” exhibition were also
auctioned. The exhibition, in conjunction with and featured in
TRADITONAL HOME magazine, had been displayed at the
Pacific Design Center, the Museum of Television and Radio,
the Fashion Institute of Design and Marketing Museum, and
the Alex Theater.
The auction is a fundraising tool for the SDSA Community
Outreach. Inner City Arts, an organization helping to enrich
the lives of inner-city children through a total arts program, is
the non-profit group chosen as the focus for 2006 outreach
and donations.
GLASSES
•
(877) LA PARTY • (818) 989-4300
13520 Saticoy St., Van Nuys, CA
Visit our showroom 9 - 5 (M - F) or
on the web at www.lapartyrents.com
HOLLOWARE
* SPECIAL RATE FOR SET DECORATORS *
Rentals can be used for 7 days at NO EXTRA CHARGE!
•
Tenting & Canopies • Film Shoots
Wrap Parties • Premieres
F L AT WA R E
• T R AY S
BOWLS • BEVERAGE SERVICE BARS
•
• C AT E R E R ’ S E Q U I P M E N T • G A R D E N / W E D D I N G E Q U I P M E N T •
•
TA B L E S • C H A I R S • L I N E N S • C H I N A
passages
Gretchen Rau
Set Decorator Gretchen Rau passed away March 29, 2006
at her home in Northport, New York, less than a month after
winning, with Production Designer John Myhre, the Academy
Award for Art Direction for MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA. She was
66 years old and died of a brain tumor. She had been diagnosed
six months ago while she was working on the film THE GOOD
SHEPHERD, directed by Robert de Niro.
Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, Rau moved to New
York when she was in her twenties. She began in the film business as a member of NABET in New York, and was a member
of both IATSE Local 44 [LA] and IATSE Local 52 [NY], as well as
of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her career
spanned three decades and she decorated more than 30 films.
She is survived by her five children: George Pattison, a director
of photography; Taylor Pattison, a propmaster; Anne Pattison, a
makeup artist; Stephanie Pattison, a school teacher; Jean-Paul
Menard, a set dresser and propmaker; and four grandchildren.
Production Designer Jeannine Oppewall, with whom Rau worked
on her last project, THE GOOD SHEPHERD, as well as an earlier
film, ROOFTOPS, remembers, “Gretchen was one of the most
well respected and beloved set decorators in this country. She
was as reliable in friendship as in work. Everyone with whom she
came in contact will sorely miss her. She always said she ‘just
loved’ her work in the film business, and her enthusiasm kept
those around her buoyant in difficult times.”
Myhre said, “We had a lovely time on MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA,
a film we all enjoyed working on, and it was so important to all of
us. She had a real sense of spirit to her, she was a good soul. I’ll
miss more than just her wonderful talent and the great work she
did as a set decorator, but also her wonderful spirit.” Rau had
worked with Myhre once before on WHAT’S EATING GILBERT
GRAPE.
Lilly Kilvert, another production designer with whom Rau frequently collaborated, including on her first Academy Award nominated project, THE LAST SAMURAI, offered this remembrance,
“She was the most lovely person. When you were around her
you just couldn’t be in a bad mood. Her taste was impeccable,
her style of working low key. She made everything seem easy.
Her crew worshiped her, as did I. No matter how difficult a situation we were in we always ended up laughing. It was an honor
to know her. I am grateful for every day I spent with her.”
She will be profoundly missed by her countless friends and
co-workers. For many, she was a role model and mentor for life.
In tribute, her family prefers no flowers. Donations to the donor’s
favorite charity are suggested.
94 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
1940-2006
FILM CREDITS, AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS
Academy Awards
2006 Oscar Best Achievement in Art Direction for
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA (2005), shared with John
Myhre (art director)
2004 Nominated, Oscar Best Art Direction-Set
Decoration for THE LAST SAMURAI (2003), shared
with Lilly Kilvert (art director)
Satellite Awards
2004 Nominated, Golden Satellite Award Best Art
Direction for THE LAST SAMURAI (2003), shared with
Lilly Kilvert
Other film credits
THE GOOD SHEPHERD (2006)
THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU (2004)
THE HUMAN STAIN (2003)
THE SHIPPING NEWS (2001)
UNBREAKABLE (2000)
THE STORY OF US (1999)
IN DREAMS (1999)
THE SIEGE (1998)
THE HORSE WHISPERER (1998)
CITY OF ANGELS (1998)
THE CRUCIBLE (1996)
BEFORE AND AFTER (1996)
THE INDIAN IN THE CUPBOARD (1995)
I.Q. (1994)
NOBODY’S FOOL (1994)
WHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE (1993)
SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION (1993)
LEAP OF FAITH (1992)
CONSENTING ADULTS (1992)
A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT (1992)
THE CABINET OF DR. RAMIREZ (1991)
ONCE AROUND (1991)
THE LONG WALK HOME (1990)
COME SEE THE PARADISE (1990)
ROOFTOPS (1989)
MISSISSIPPI BURNING (1988)
TOUGH GUYS DON’T DANCE (1987)
84 CHARING CROSS ROAD (1987)
NO MERCY (1986)
CROCODILE DUNDEE (1986)
DEATH WISH 3 (1985)
YEAR OF THE DRAGON (1985)
ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA (1984)
FIGHTING BACK (1982)
ATLANTIC CITY (1984)
Television
KENNEDY (TV MINI-SERIES) (1983)
./
resources
SDSA business member contact information can be found at
out shopping
African Artifacts
page 24
Bwa/Mossi Mask: The Bwa people from Mali and Burkina
Faso create large circular masks with colorful geometric designs
that allude to the sun. Used during agricultural festivities, these
masks are worn in front of the dancer’s face and held in place
with a thick rope by the wearer’s teeth. OB•JECTS
Mende Statue & Helmet Mask, Sierra Leone and Liberia:
Representing a powerful ancestor, the statue is used in
ceremonies and dances by the women’s secret society Yassi
to invoke fertility and healing. The black helmet mask, a Bundu
or Sowei mask, is worn exclusively by women for dance rituals
of their Sande society. Representing an ideal of feminine beauty, it features
an elaborate hairstyle, full forehead and small facial features, with a healthy
glowing skin and fleshy rolls to promise fecundity. Its sacredness lies in
its representation of the long deceased female founder of Sande secret
society. TRIBAL TREASURES
Korogho Mud Cloth, northern Côte d’Ivoire: Fila cloth, made of six
strips of cotton sewn together, features symbols from the Poro secret
men’s society. Geometric designs and realistic figures drawn by Senufo
religious artists are traditionally used to communicate to the gods the
wearer’s desire for protection and for life’s necessities. Widely imitated and
replicated, these are sold all over the continent as mass-produced tourist
art. TRIBAL TREASURES
Masai Water Jug, Kenya: The gourd water jug is used by the
Masai to prepare protein drinks made of cow’s blood and milk, or
to carry water over long distances in the exceedingly arid region
of Kenya. GALLERY ASHA
Pende Ceremonial Mask, Republic of Congo/ Zaire: The
Kwilu Pende are known for masks that were originally used
for circumcision ceremonies but later became accessories
for a type of popular theater. The Kwilu Mbuya masks are
characterized by a somber, gloomy expression. GALLERY ASHA
Ukhamba Zulu Beer Pot, Kwazulu Natal, South Africa
(Zulu Kingdom): Traditionally made by Zulu women who
collect, grind and mix the Ubumba clay, this vessel is used
for brewing Utshwala – home brewed beer. A thin layer of
cow dung is applied to the exterior after the first firing. Symbolic of the
link between the ancestors, the head of the house and the cattle, its
placement in the home is a sign of respect for the household’s ancestors.
CULTURES
Tablecloth, Gauteng area of South Africa: Contemporary textile inspired
by the Ndebele Tribe’s geometric murals, the earthy colors represent the
soil and grounding of Africa. CULTURES
Bamileke Female Mask, grasslands area of Cameroon: The
Bamileke reserve their highest allegiance for their direct ancestors
whose spirits are embodied in the skulls of the deceased.
Recognizing the importance of the skull, representations of the
head are found in nearly all of their decorated ceremonial objects including this
expressive mask, which is about 20 years old. HOUSE OF PROPS
Standing Figure Mask: This skull is from the head of a tribal village’s
family. After death, the head is removed and the entire family gathers
to pay homage by decorating the skull with mud, paint, shells and
other objects. The transfigured skull is then placed in front of the
home out of respect for the family elder. HAND PROP ROOM
96 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
INSIDE MAN
pages 28–33
Bank: furniture – Arenson Prop Center; bank tables – Alan Brasington
Network; draperies – Bethel Studios; carpet – Victor Henshel Flooring;
framing – One Hour Framing; lighting – City Knickerbocker (Downstairs
Bank), New York Lighting; hardware – Artistic Hardware; paperwork etc.
– State Supply, Demarco; banking related – Bankers Exchange, Matel;
computers – Dell; accessories – Arenson Prop Center, Props For Today,
Eclectic/Encore
Arthur Case’s Office: furniture – Newel Art Galleries, Arenson Prop
Center; accessories – Eclectic/Encore, Prop Co, Kaplan & Co, Props For
Today; carpets – Ike Timiniko; lighting – City Knickerbocker
Madeline White’s Office: furniture – Newel Art Galleries,The Prop
Co/ Kaplan & Co, Arenson Prop Center, Bernhardt; art – Film Art LA,
Troubetskoy, Newel Art Galleries; accessories – Far Eastern Antiques,
Props For Today, Lee’s Studio; lighting – Lee’s Lighting, New York
Lighting; computers – Apple
FREEDOMLAND
pages 34–38
Medical equipment – American Resource Medical; furniture – Arenson
Prop Center, Eclectic/Encore, State Supply, Bergen Office Furniture;
window treatments (blinds) – Hunter Douglas product placement; various
furniture & smalls – Angel Street Thrift Shop, Housing Works Thrift Shop,
Green Village Thrift; lighting – Lighting By Gregory, City Knickerbocker;
hardware – Olde Good Things, McMaster Carr, Home Depot, Lowe’s,
Garber’s Hardware; Catholic school equipment – Catholic archdioces of
New York; Bayonne Police Department – research and photographs of
police departments
THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE
pages 40–41
Photo Shoot: wallpaper – 2nd Hand Rose; divan – Antiek; slipcover (sewing) – Brenda Colling; slipcover fabric – Rosen & Chadick, Rose Brand
Kitchen: refrigerator, stove, smalls – Eclectic/Encore; overhead light –
City Knickerbocker; table, chairs, smalls – Stormville Flea Market; linens,
smalls – Cat House Antiques; curtains (sewing) – Brenda Colling
Bedroom: blinds – Hunter Douglas; linens – Monmouth Antique Center;
curtains – Brenda Colling (sewing); curtain fabric – P & S fabric; wardrobe
– Calvary Thrift Store; dresser – Millerton Antiques; vanity – Angel Street
Thrift Shop; lights, smalls – George Cole Auctions; smalls – Eclectic/
Enclore; art, smalls – Millerton Antique Center; vanity smalls – History for
Hire
Living Room NYC: blinds – Hunter Douglas; curtains – Brenda Colling;
sofa – Calvary Thrift Shop; armchairs – Antiek; slipcovers – Brenda
Colling; slipcover fabric – P & S fabric, Eclectic/Encore; sewing machines
– George Cole Auction; record player & stand – Rosendale Wares;
lighting – Rosendale Wares, Housing Works Thrift Shop
Living Room Tennessee: chair, side tables – Eclectic/Encore; rug
– Eclectic/Encore; lamps – City Knickerbocker; wallpaper – Fabulous
Wallcovering; artwork – Eclectic/Encore; radio – Millbrook Antique Center
Steno Pool: desks – existing in location; typewriters – History for Hire;
chairs – Bergen Office Furniture; clock – State Supply
WHAT ABOUT BRIAN
pages 46–53
Young Lawyer’s House: couch – Davinci; artwork – Billy Shire Fine Arts;
lighting over poker table – Donovan Lighting; bar/bookshelf and chairs
around poker table, also dining table and chairs – Blueprint; drapery
fabric for curtains – Designer’s Portfolio; bathroom sink – Duravit through
Susan Grant Lewin Associates; tile – Erin Adams through Susan Grant
Lewin Associates
Zap Monkey computer office: artwork – Gary Baseman and Tim
Biskup at Billy Shire Fine Arts
Dave and Deena’s Venice home: sofa – Sofa U Love
POTJEFSFE
UIFCFTU
JOTUPDL
TFMFDUJPOPG
%SBQFSZ
6QIPMTUFSZ
'BCSJDTPO
UIFXFTU
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'BCSJDT
4FSWJOHUIF
.PUJPO1JDUVSF
*OEVTUSZGPSPWFS
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QSPGFTTJPOBMIFMQBOE
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MEDIUM
pages 54–59
DA’s office/Police Station: All furniture – Advanced Liquidators
Girl’s pink bedroom with bunkbeds: beds from Costco;
bookcases – made by construction, painted by WB Spray Booth
Kitchen: table & chairs – Burke’s Country Collection
Living room: oversized chair – rental from Universal; fireplace tiles
are fakes made by scanning tile onto a paper then glossing over
the paper; sofa – Warner Bros Upholstery; antique cabinet – Studio
Antiques; wrought iron screen – Arte de Mexico; coffee table – Casa
Rustica
Throughout the house: lighting – Lamps Plus; used furniture – Wertz
Bros; furniture & accessories –Target, Cost Plus; linens, accessories,
drapery – Bed, Bath and Beyond; linens – Linens & Things
GHOST WHISPERER
pages 62–65
Los Angeles Area Resources: Antiques Plus, Design Within Reach,
Mardine Davis @ Larchmont Art & Frame, Moon Goddess Jewelry/
Josephine Mbugua, Pier 1, Firefly, OPI Products, Digs, Inner Living,
Mortise & Tenon, Little Paris Antiques, Vintage Home, Rejuvenation
Lighting, Ron Miller From Around the World, Crate & Barrel, Pom
Pom, Civilization, Lamps Plus, Liz’s Antique Hardware, Macy’s, F & S
Fabrics, Pottery Barn, Ballard Design
Rentals: Universal Studios Property Department, Disney Property
Department
Mail Order: Garnet Hill, Front Gate, Smith & Hawken, Restoration
Hardware
COMMANDER IN CHIEF
pages 66–72
Oval Office: Presidential desk – Henkel Harris; Oval Office rug
– Fabrica; assorted furniture pieces – Baker, Knapp & Tubbs (@PDC),
Leo Burke, Warner Bros. Property; assorted office furniture – Crest
Office Furniture; sconces – Lighting Expo; artwork – White House
Historical Society; bronze sculptures – Andevan Bronzeworks
Center Hall and Sitting Rooms in Residence: oriental Rugs – The
Rug Warehouse, Renaissance Rug Gallery; assorted furniture pieces
– Warner Bros. Property, Baker, Knapp & Tubbs (@PDC); crystal
chandeliers & wall sconces – Imperial Crystal Lighting; artwork – White
House Historical Society
Templeton’s Office: leather sofa, club chairs – Hancock & Moore;
desk and assorted furniture pieces – Warner Bros. Property, Wertz
Bros.; bronze sculptures – Andevan Bronzeworks
HUFF
pages 74–83
Michele Poulik’s resources: Art – Mardine Davis; rugs/floor designs
– Universal-Production Rental; desks – Oliver Platt Office; furniture
– T.R. Trading, Furniture Town; bathroom suite – Kolher Product
Placement; lighting – Graybar Electric, Brown and Gold; stove & fridge
– Jenn-Air Product Placement; books in Huff’s Office – Faux Books
Richard Walker’s resources:
Law Offices Lobby (cover): glass table – Metropolis; light fixtures
– Lighting Expo; floral arrangement – Julie Komen Floral Design
Law Offices Lobby: chandelier – 20th Century Props; candlestick
lamps – Lighting Expo; desks – custom by Metropolis; conference
table – built by construction crew; conference room chairs – Blueprint;
conference room armoire – Furniture Town; grey chair – Cisco
Brothers; rug – Lawrence of La Brea; plants and florals – Julie Komen
Floral Design; art – Mardene Davis, Martin Lawrence Galleries, UFrame-It
Dauri’s Bedroom: Linens, headboard – Sloan Reis; silk pillows –
Civilization; side tables – ObJects; lamps – RC Vintage, Lighting Expo;
sculpture, vases – Blueprint; trees – Greenset; orchids – Julie Komen
Floral Design; art – ArtPic
Teddy’s Room: accessories – Mainly Seconds; table, chairs, coffee
table – House of Paul; mobiles – handcrafted by crew
Huff’s Study: sofa – Civilization; leather ottoman – Cisco Brothers;
lamps – Lighting Expo; carpet – Floor Design; pillows – Sloan Reis
98 SET DECOR
SPRING 2006
One Stop Shopping
Newel Art Galleries, Inc. + Troubetzkoy Paintings, Ltd.
All Periods Of Decorative & Fine Arts
NEWEL ART GALLERIES, INC.
425 EAST 53RD STREET NEW YORK, NY 10022 TEL: 212-758-1970 FAX: 212-371-0166
WWW.NEWEL.COM
INFO@NEWEL.COM
1"3508("--&3:

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MELROSE

REEL-Recovery-Film-Festival - Lifeskills Of South Florida

film - Set Decorators Society of America

EXCLUSIVE TO - Halloween Alley

Oct 2013 reg layout

Polish Film Festival Flyer 8_5x5_5

here

weatherdek

www.ilapak.com

Salida del Sol Academy

Parrot